Small sausages without skins are produced today in great quantities in sausage machines using a plastic skin which, in sections of suitable lengths, e.g. of 30 m and longer, is gathered into bellows-like hollow members. The hollow members are then added to the top of the filling pipe of a sausage machine, from where the plastic skin is drawn out to be filled with meat emulsion and thus is smoothed out. The rope of sausage which is thus produced is divided into individual sausages, boiled and cooled. The plastic skin is then ready for packaging and sale.
Extruded tubular cellulose sheathing material is generally used as a plastic skin for small skinless sausages which are produced in this manner, which is very expensive. It is also a drawback that the collagen components of the meat emulsion adhere to the cellulose skin, and peeling the small sausage is made more difficult. Of course, this difficulty can be overcome to a certain extent by special handling of the cellulose material, which, however, further raises the already high cost. Also, on account of its sensitivity to humidity and temperature, tubular cellulose sheathing material can be stored only under special conditions and with use of costly packaging.